A man meets Cecily Smith at an opera and discovers that what matters isn't the music itself, but who you're listening with. Their chance encounter at La Traviata becomes a marriage, a child, a life built on shared moments.
The war was over, I was living with my folks.
I yelled upstairs, "Hey Mom, off to grab some smokes!" And my father called, "Why you need to smoke so late?" Well, I lied. I had a vape. Free from my folks' enslavement. Skipping along the pavement to see a brunette who I never met, but I never would forget how she looked in that dress. How she stuck out her hand and said, "My name is Cecily Smith, and I hope you like music, 'cause I've got 2 tickets for La Traviata." That's when I said, "I hate opera." She laughed and said, "Well, lucky for you that you're with Cecily Smith.
Who cares what you are listening to?
It's who you're listening with." So we take our seats, her hands are folded in her lap. If not a kiss, then I at least will get a nap. So I close my eyes as the orchestra begins. Then I hear violins, and the hair on my neck was rising, a feeling new and surprising. But it wasn't the sound that made my heart pound, no, it was because I found her hand was in mine, and that's where it would stay until they played the final chord. And she says, were you bored? And I said, I guess it wasn't quite so bad.
It was the best time that I've ever had.
She smiled and said, "Well, lucky for you, I got seats to Beethoven's Fifth. Who cares what you are listening to?
It's who you're listening with." The perfect wife.
The perfect life. The time exploded like a bullet from a gun. A week, a year, and then a marriage and a son and a rental where I I still can hear her laugh when I play the phonograph. So I let the music guide me, and Cecily sits beside me, a girl of 19 with a nervous marine. Feel her head begin to lean as the melody soars. And although it was real, it doesn't feel like it could be. The night where you said to me, "I've got two tickets for La Traviata." It's sad but true how much I miss you. I missed you so, so recently.
Life is not the things It's not the things that we do, it's who we're doing them with.
